yeah i’ve read that a cooling pad is a must, i definitely plan on getting on. is there a particular type or brand i should be looking for? any recommendations?
i have no problem lugging a laptop around. i don’t even think i would be taking my laptop around too much, but i say that now. i bet when i get one finally, it will be attached to my hip :lol:
can you recommend some equivalent or better (quality and price) HP, Toshiba, or Asus laptops in comparison to the Dell XPS 15?
i would like to go with the acer but i just feel a lot better about the Dell. seems like a more reputable and helpful company.
i’ve heard from here say that Acer laptops have a lot of kinks, but i suppose you could say that about any laptop.
yeah i get you bro. i was just responding to the guy that said 3lbs is bulky. work out or something. heh.
another pro for the dell is the thinner form factor compared to the acer
What is the board consensus with Vaios? I’m just curious cuz a few posts up someone mention Toshibas having the best labtops?
I have a lower end Toshiba Satellite from 5-6 years ago, still going strong, not much problem with it. But thinking of getting something new with higher resolution since most work I do are multi-tasking with lots of spreadsheets.
I have nothing against Toshibas or any brands just wanted some opinions on different brands.
thats just a misconception, it is a version of unix, they can get viruses,
its just nobody ever bothered to make them. but now that theyre becoming more popular… evil face
why else do they have anti virus programs for the mac.
Not going to get into the mac/pc debate… Buy a mac if you want to listen to your friends… Spend more money for less if you want.
I know you are trying to make a good choice, thats a smart thing. Listening to friends that arent tech geeks… Not so much.
I believe the dell is the best choice. If you want to spend a little more I can show you some good gaming lappys from asus and toshiba but you are looking at another 200-400.
My toshiba gaming laptop that was $2000 in 2007 can still run the latest games at mid quality… My sons ASUS was 1000 last xmas and can run everything on high with no problem…
This is horseshit. The mac platform always falls first at hacking conferences, it’s security is pathetic. However, since nobody uses them it’s pointless to create a virus for it. It’s security through obscurity and that’s starting to change as more people use them.
If you want to game, don’t get a mac, period.
If you want a gaming laptop I’d say go with an ASUS, or an MSI.
Yeah mac’s look great but other than that i just have this bad feeling about.
i like the XPS 15, but i heard that it is not good for your lap and can burn.
i’m willing to spend a little bit more, give me any recommendations please.
It seems like most people say Mac’s are the best, but tech heads abhor Macs completely. I don’t mean to start a debate between macs and others. it’s just intriguing to me.
i recently bought a sony mp3 player as opposed to an ipod. i was leaning away from ipod, and the salesman was a cool guy and steered me away from apple and was pretty honest about the fact that all you are paying for when it comes to Apple products, is the name.
my cousin (who is not really a tech head) recommended me this:
macs use the same guts as any other computer, there is no difference at all in where the hardware comes from. However macs are often far behind competing products in hardware generations, because of a rather long validation process. Case in point compare say sound card, video card, and RAID card options you can slap into a PC vs what you can slap into a Mac. You’ll find the apple versions are either outdated or are inferior to the PC version, yet they cost more, often it’s the same exact product with a 200 buck price hike on it.
Macs are about the same quality and same parts as a mid level computer, they aren’t bad, but they aren’t a premium product. however apple commands a premium price for them since there is no competition.
For tech geeks that actually know what they want, macs are either laughably underpowered and bad, don’t offer the parts they want, or just are flat out inferior in quality to items of comparable price. So techies avoid them.
The reason to get a mac is to get OSX, if you want OSX you’re stuck with getting a mac. This isn’t really a sell to tech people as if they wanted .nix they could build a faster box, with far better parts and superior quality, and just load say free bsd or solaris onto it and call it a day.
If you are purchasing a computer and quality and hardware matter to you, an apple product is the last thing you want. If you want OSX than it’s mac or bust.
Now, there are good reasons to want OSX, so that’s another argument and OSX vs Windows is really going to boil down to what software you want to use and how much you like either OS. But from a quality and hardware standpoint, macs are crap.
For a gaming computer, well more games are out there for windows than mac, so… this is a done deal. For me I pick the parts I want and go from there, I’ll load whatever OS I want onto it later, and mac really doesn’t have the parts I want, and I’m not going to settle for non premium products.
I agree with the mac being about the software experience. It is a responsive OS and I’ve never met someone who owned a mac and loathed the OS itself. (maybe the lack of games, or the need to buy mac versions of software)
I’m a big fan of OSX, but whether that is worth the price difference is up to you.
You’ve almost doubled your initial budget, and you’ve started a conversation, but are you closer to a decision? What does your shortlist of possible machines look like? Any changes since the budget boost?
I would go with the toshiba… bigger screen (18.4") Great video card… bad side is that its heavy… My X205 toshiba is heavy too but thats not an issue for me.
Are you in school right now? If you are, you are definitely gonna lug that shit around. If not, then I dont see that happening, unless you like going to coffee shops and do internet browsing from there.
tbh, i dont think I can recommend something that matches both quality and price. If you are gonna buy a laptop, you gotta find one that is a perfect fit for you because you can only upgrade certain aspects of it (RAM, hdd) while the rest of the aspects are basically set for life (video card, screen size, processor). So, you really gotta be anal about what you want it to do. Personally, any gaming specific laptop will do just about anything you want it to do, and, in this case, I wouldn’t skimp on the money if you find one that you fall in love with. But again, reliability wise, Toshibas and HPs last a long ass time. I’ve had two toshiba laptops starting from 1999 until now and the only reason I bought a new one was because the one i had was obsolete, meaning the laptop couldn’t run current gen programs without it running super slow.
Acer sucks from what all my friends have experienced. Either they had to get it repaired or get a total replacement within a year of buying it.
Anyway, you gotta consider the core essentials of a laptop before anything. Those are:
Portability
Battery Life
Reliability
Portability:
My first toshiba (Satellite) was 6lbs (+2lbs for the charger) and it was okay to bring around, but walking all around campus with 8lbs on your back can be a bitch. Next Toshiba was 4lbs (+1lbs for the charger) and the weight difference was very evident as I could lug it around a lot more, but it still was noticeable. I currently now have a Toshiba netbook weighing in at 2.5lbs (+1lbs for charger) and I don’t even realize i am carrying it around. It doesn’t do well with video and streaming, but the new netbooks are dual core and can do HD movies without a hitch (that’s what I’ve been reading about the new Dual Core Asus netbooks).
Battery Life:
Crazy essential. average battery lifespan for any laptop with high specs is around 3-4 hours, but that’s just normal internet browsing/word processing use. If you add in music/video/gaming, that battery life goes way down. I think laptops with the iCores do better with battery life, so I’d consider that into your buying decision. I feel like I am trying to sell you on a netbook here, but, having a 9 hour battery life is amazing. Consider this, with a battery life lasting an average of 6-9 hours, you may not have to bring the charger with you, which is another 1-2lbs depending on charger size.
Reliability/Durability:
You may take care of your laptop very well, but in the end, the more you take it with you, the more bumps and scratches its gonna have solely based on the fact that it’s moving with you. Apple computers are crazy solid, but also crazy expensive. Dell’s are very reliable, but they feel “cheap” plastic like. However, none of my friends ran into Dell issues regarding durability. Shrug. Toshibas/HPs are solid, not as solid as apples, but pretty damn tough. I’ve thrown my shit around countless times and they keep tickin’. The only thing that happened was that the chassis near the bottom of the keyboard started cracking, but performance wise, my laptops ran like champs until their bitter end of being sold.
Sorry if I’m coming off as indecisive guys. I’m very hesitant to make a decision, and it seems the farther i dig the more indecisive i become :lol:
I want to get the XPS 15 but there is this nagging voice saying how dell’s are unreliable, and this particular model gets pretty hot i guess. i know the decision is ultimately mine, but man, i feel like i can’t make a decision :lol: i’ll probably be unhappy with any laptop i get so i might as well just take a leap of faith.
how is the customer service with dell if something goes wrong?
i heard macs have phenomenal customer service, and offer a student discount.
I haven’t been pushing the mac as I don’t think it is what he is asking for, but as far as reliability and customer service Apple always rank highly. Apple is No. 1 in reliability survey - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Tech
You might not like what they’re offering, but they’re by no means middle of the road quality.
In this price range, as a consumer notebook, the Asus G51 and the Toshiba Qosimo are both really nice. The Toshiba is the more manly choice. Expect huge muscles after a year.
You’ve just met him. Fuck other laptop manufacturers not taking the 13 inch market seriously. (Or at least it was that way when I bought mine, I could find zero with a dedicated GPU without spending MORE than I did). I am willing to say OS X is worse than KDE4 was at launch.